1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printing plate receiving guide mechanism and a method of receiving and guiding for receiving a leading end portion of a printing plate which is fed onto a surface plate of an exposure stage or the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
A technique (printing plate automatic exposing device) has been developed in which, by using a printing plate (for example, a PS plate, a thermal plate, a photopolymer plate, or the like) in which a recording layer is provided on a support, an image is recorded directly by a laser beam onto the photopolymerizable layer of the printing plate.
In this technique, in order to rapidly carry out image recording onto printing plates, the printing plates must be fed one after the other. A plurality of printing plates are made to wait in a stacked state at a predetermined position, and are automatically removed one at a time, positioned on a surface plate, and fed into an exposure section.
Here, in a case in which the printing plate is set on the surface plate, conventionally, a printing plate 304 is nipped by rollers 302 disposed in the vicinity of a surface plate 300, and is conveyed to the predetermined position on the surface plate 300 (FIGS. 11A through 11C).
However, with the aforementioned conventional positioning method, a leading end 304A of the printing plate 304 falls directly onto the surface plate 300 (FIG. 11A). Thereafter, the leading end 304A of the printing plate 304 slides on the surface plate 300 (FIG. 11B), and reaches a predetermined position on the surface plate 300 (FIG. 11C). As a result, there is the concern that the upper surface of the surface plate 300 may be abraded or scratches may be formed on the upper surface of the surface plate 300, and there is the concern that the reverse surface of the printing plate 304 may be scratched due to these scratches and the like.
In view of the aforementioned, an object of the present invention is to provide a receiving guide mechanism for use in printing plate feeding which can prevent abrasion and scratching of a surface plate, and can prevent scratching of a reverse surface of a printing plate.
A receiving guide mechanism used in printing plate feeding of a first aspect of the present invention comprises: a receiving guide which receives, above a surface plate, a leading end portion of a printing plate which is to be set on the surface plate; and a guide driving device which moves the receiving guide in accordance with movement of the leading end portion of the printing plate, and due to the receiving guide being made to escape forward in a conveying direction of the printing plate immediately before conveying of the printing plate is completed, the printing plate is set on the surface plate.
In accordance with the receiving guide mechanism of the first aspect of the present invention, when the printing plate is conveyed onto the surface plate, the receiving guide receives the leading end portion of the printing plate above the surface plate. Further, due to the guide driving device, the receiving guide moves in accordance with the movement of the leading end portion of the printing plate, and escapes forward in the conveying direction of the printing plate immediately before conveying of the printing plate is finished. As a result, because the leading end of the printing plate does not fall directly on the surface plate and thereafter slide on the surface plate as in conventional structures, there is no abrasion and scratching of the top surface of the surface plate. Thus, abrasion and scratching of the surface plate can be prevented, and scratching of the reverse surface of the printing plate can be prevented.
In the receiving guide mechanism used in printing plate feeding of the first aspect of the present invention, preferably, the moving speed of the receiving guide is faster than the conveying speed of the printing plate immediately before conveying of the printing plate is finished.
In the receiving guide mechanism, preferably, the moving speed of the receiving guide is made to be faster than the conveying speed of the printing plate immediately before conveying of the printing plate is finished. Thus, immediately before conveying of the printing plate is completed, the receiving guide can reliably escape forward in the conveying direction of the printing plate due to the relative movement between the receiving guide and the printing plate. Therefore, the printing plate can be made to reliably land on the surface plate.
In the receiving guide mechanism used in printing plate feeding of the first aspect of the present invention, preferably, the receiving guide is provided at a discharge device for discharging the printing plate from above the surface plate.
In the receiving guide mechanism, preferably, due to the receiving guide being provided at the discharge device for discharging the printing plate from above the surface plate, supporting members and a guide driving device of the receiving guide can be commonly used as supporting members and a driving device of the discharge device. Thus, the number of parts can be decreased.
As described above, the receiving guide mechanism used in printing plate feeding relating to the present invention has excellent effects in that abrasion and scratching of the surface plate can be prevented, and in that scratching of the reverse surface of the printing plate can be prevented. Further, the receiving guide can reliably escape forward in the conveying direction of the printing plate immediately before the conveying of the printing plate is finished. The printing plate can be reliably conveyed and set on the surface plate without the conveying of the printing plate being impossible due to the printing plate sliding on the surface plate and static electricity being generated due to friction and the printing plate clinging due to the electrification. Moreover, the receiving guide mechanism of the present invention has another excellent effect in that the number of parts can be reduced.